Thursday March 2nd is World book day. Books you could read on your travels.

 

My good friend Carolyn Street who I have known for years though Toastmasters Internatioanal in Singapore and Writers Summer School in the UK has compiled the and Us series of books. I have chapters in Authenticity and us, in Fear and Us and in Grief and Us. 

Go onto Amazon.com for a free look inside these books. When you have decided on your favourite, when you buy one, I will sign it for you.

Useful Websites

Amazon

lulu.com

Please bookmark and share with your friends the links to your favourite blog posts and books.

Visit the homes of Shaw, Webster, Disraeli and the Rothschilds - and Remember Their Famous Sayings

The Rothschilds educated the children of the East End of London and Webster taught immigrants to read and write in the modified Americanisms we know today. You can visit the homes of Shaw in England and Webster in the USA, but first let's learn a little of their history.


Caricature of Bernard Shaw. New York Public library. Wikipedia.

Here's a caricature of Shaw by Beerbohm in The New York Public Library. In England you can visit Shaw's House. Shaw is famous for plays including Pygmalion, written in 1913, which inspired the musical My Fair Lady which included the song, Why can't the English teach their children how to speak!

The English used to teach their children how to speak. As a schoolchild in London, England, I was offered elocution lessons.

Dickens and Fagin
Dickens published a story about Fagin, based on a true character. This book echoed current antisemitism and inspired a wave of antisemitism.  You can visit Dickens House museum in the centre of London near the British Museum. Other places associated with Dickens are around England.

During Dickens' lifetime, wellwishers were appalled at the animosity directed towards both the Jews, and towards Dickens.

Dickens House Museum, 48 Doughty Street, London, England, UK

Dickens Study in Dickens House, London, England. Picture from Wikipedia.

To counteract the image of Fagin, George Eliot wrote Daniel Deronda, in which the hero married a virtuous Jewish girl whose father is a ne-er do well who causes her embarrassment.

But a book was not enough. The rich Rothschild banking family stepped in. The Rothchilds were good organizers and gave money to rebuild churches. One of them had set up The Bank of England, which later helped pay troops in the first world war..The Rothschilds stepped in to improve the English language and character and appearance of the poor East End Jews. The Rothschilds set up The Jewish Free School in London's East End. Mrs Rothchild herself went into the school and listened to the children read. The poor children were given free uniforms and the pockets were sewn up so the children could not slouch. The school had over 1,000 pupils and was the biggest school in England and Europe.

I remember puzzling over the fact that my late father and his parents lived in the Jewish East End but did not have 'East End' accents but spoke perfect English. Why? Researching back over the history of the East End in the 1880s for a yet to be published novel based on my family history, answered this question. For several years, in London's East End, you were surrounded by a thousand children, plus school leavers, who were trained to read and write and speak perfect English.
You can take walking tours of the Jewish East End, and see the outsides of several famous buildings.

Disraeli
In England you can visit several homes once built, owned or inhabited by the famous Rothschilds, friends of Queen Victoria and her favourite minister, the charismatic, witty Disraeli. (He was born in the East End, a Jew.but his whole family was converted to Christianity when he was a child. This didn't stop members of Parliament sneering at him for being a Jew, inspiring Disraeli's witty retorts. My favourite quotation from Disraeli is, When I want to read a novel, I write one. When he was dying he turned down the offer of being visited by Queen Victoria with the sentiment, "No, thank you. She will only want me to take a message to Albert." (Just in case you missed it, that was a reference to Queen Vicotria's long deceased husband.")

You can see a synagogue in the East End which Disraeli and his family attended.

Waddesdon

Waddesdon and The Rothschilds
North of London, in Hertfordshire, is Waddesdon, now a National Trust property, which was built by the Rothschilds.

Nearby are Disraeli's home, his burial place, and his statue.

(Today's Post being written. Come back for more later. Meanwhile read yesterdays post about American and British English.)

If you are stuck at home, kept in your country, not allowed entry into another, or the venue is closed, at least during Covid-19 you have time to revisit on line the places you visited previously, and to plan to visit your favourites when travel plans become easier and the homes of your favourite famous characters are opened.

If you find the place you wanted to visit has closed, you might consider joining the 'Friends of' society following the author or famous character, and joining their campaign to have the homes associated with the character re-opened to the public. If you are retired, or want work experience, you might look for a job as a volunteer.

Webster
Over in the USA, you can visit the home of Webster, who wrote the American dictionary. While properties are closed, you will have to let your fingers do the walking (slogan from Yellow pages phone directory, UK) and enjoy reading about your favourite famous people online. The good news is that Dickens House in London opens today, July 25th.

Homes and Places to Visit

UK

Dickens House Museum
London
Re-opens today July 25. You must book for timed entry to prevent overcrowding which is a safety issue for staff and visitors during covid-19.


USA
Statue of Dickens and Little Nell, Philadelphia, USA

Homes of Rothschilds
Waddesdon

Home of Shaw
Shaw Corner
National Trust property. Currently closed (July 2020). When open, appeals for volunteers.

Waddesdon
In July grounds are open but wildflowers instead of colourful flower displays. You must pre-book to avoid overcrowding. Free exhibition on Roses. House opens September. Shop open selling wines, sandwiches and gifts. You are asked to bring masks to wear in the shop and on the shuttle bus (which must also be booked). You can sign up to be sent news.

USA
Home of Webster who wrote the Dictionary which still bears his name, and the English textbooks for immigrants, children and adults learning English.


Webster Family Home, USA

Daniel Webster Birthplace, Franklin, New Hampshire, USA. Photo from Wiki.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is the author of Wedding Speeches and Toasts (see the author profile and books on Amazon).
Angela is also the author of Quick Quotations (see lulu.com).
If you would like to comment or ask for a post on a favourite person or place, contact Angela through LinkedIn, Facebook or Toastmasters.
Angela is PR for Braddell Heights Advanced and a member of four other clubs, Singapore International Online, Tampines Changkat Advanced, Tiarel, and Harrovians (in Harrow, London, England). All are meeting online during Covid-19 and keen to welcome visitors and potential new members.

For quotations see Wikiquote

Or my book
Quick Quotations (Lulu.com)
Who Said What When (Lulu.com)

Useful Websites
https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/angela-lansbury/quick-quotations/paperback/product-1rejp7p8.html
https://waddesdon.org.uk/your-visit/
https://dickensmuseum.com/

Come back every day to read a new post.
I have many more posts on famous authors, and sites in the UK, USA, and worldwide. Also several posts on learning languages. Please read my other posts and share links to your favourite posts with your faourite colleagues, friends and members of your family.

The Challenges Of Online Meetings

Challenges Of All Meetings
First I'll give you the bad news, then the good news. Some of the challenges of online meetings are the same as those of in person meetings.

1 Somebody who said he would give a speech is too busy doing something else. (One rule is that they must check in early. A second is to tell you what meeting conflicts they have. If it sounds legitimate or important or unavaildable you can explain to the audience: John is on a flight from overseas and if he cannot call us that means his flight has been delayed. The third is to have a plan b. Find a substitute speaker.)

2 After all the efforts of the organizers, the numbers of audience members attending are disappointing. Why? Do you need more publicity? Better publicity? Or earlier publicity?

3 Some people arrive late at the meeting. Others leave early.
To take account of those who leave early, repeat or record early information for them. Get information from them before they leave. Ask them to leave contact details. Take a group photo.

Online meetings have their own challenges.

Problem - Sound
1 Sound quality can be erratic.
We started with Learncool. We tried Skype. We went back to Zoom. We wanted to know whether the problem was our end of the other end.

Eventually, by process of elinination, we discovered the solution to the problem and therefore the cause of the problem. When we switched off everybody else's sound to better hear the main speaker, the quality of the sound improved.

Meeting Program
Our second meeting was technically an improvement on the first. We had loaded up the program of the meeting onto the website.

Famous Quotations
I spent several hours creating the slides on Powerpoint to share.  My themes were study and work.  I had twenty quotations on these two topics. I found the quotations in two books I wrote, Quick Quotations, and Who Said What When.

The second of my books on quotations gave me the dates the person quoted lived and died. I went back to Wikipedia for portraits.

Feedback On What Was Good
The meeting was scheduled to end at 9 pm. But we had started late because of sound problems.

Janet said she enjoyed the fact that the topics were all on the same theme. She also enjoyed the language evaluation.

Shishir said he enjoyed the personal stories during the speechcraft, to illustrate the points.

Suggestions For Improvement
Add speeches and evaluations.

Do more publicity - such as a video. This can be made from recordings of the meeting.

By the end of the meeting we had fewer, so it was a pity we did not take a group photo at the beginning.

Fun Photos
However, we had great photos with stuffed toys. That was an idea I had copied from Singapore Online Toastmasters of which I am a member.

Meetings you can join:
Singapore Online Friday evening 9-12 midnight Singapore time
Harrovians Mondays 7-9 pm evening UK time
Braddell Heights Advanced  Wednesdays 7-9 pm Singapore time

These meetings are in English. Other clubs are in French, Spanish, Mandarin, bilingual English and Malay, Tamil and other languages.

Useful Websites
Toastmasters International Find A Club
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, trainer of speakers.  More on sound qulity in the next post. Please share links to useful posts.

The True Origins of Bakewell Tart, and Pavlovas ?

Problems
Who invented the British Bakewell Tart?
What's the Difference between a Bakewell Tart and a Bakewell Pudding?
Who invented the Pavlova?
Who said, "let them eat cake"?
Who invented fish and chips?
Pizza?

Chop Suey?

Answers
The Bakewell tart was supposedly invented in Bakewell. However, if you go back through the printed editions of cookery books, a similar recipe appeared in Mrs Beeton's recipe book before the opening of the shop in Bakewell on the site of the inn where the cook make it popular. You'll have to check the dates, if you are bothered.

Mrs Beeton lived in Hatch End, a short wide street called The Broadway, on the Uxbridge Road, going towards Uxbridge, near Hatch End station, in Pinner (which has another station called Pinner station) in North West London. Unfortunately Mrs Beeton's house no longer stands. (The area was bombed in WWII, as you can see from photos in the archives of the Heath Robinson museum in Pinner.

Mrs Beeton  was the young wife of a publisher and at his request compiled a book of Household management and a recipe book. Both were best sellers. Unfortunately she died young, after childbirth. Her book is still in print and a heritage plaque is on a restaurant in the high street, going from the railway station, cross the road on the crossing, and the the restaurant is the last one at the other end of the shops - only a few minutes walk.

Mrs Beeton took some of her recipes from a book by Eliza Acton. If you read Eliza Acton's book, she claims to have compiled a recipe based on the dish she was served by a Jewish house wife in London's East End.

Fish and chips is also reputed to be based on food served by Jews who were in the East End of London, where they lived because that is where they got off the boats from Europe. (In the days before plane travel.)

Whilst this is amusing, recipes transform and improve. The origin of French Tarte Tatin, supposedly served by two sisters, after the dimmest or most accident prone one turned an apple dessert upside down with the pastry underneath and apples on top, a tart, instead of the pie with apples underneath and a pastry topping, a pudding.

Tart Tatin is nicely alliterative. Bakewell tart is a great name, sounding like bake well.

The French introduced controls over use of the name of areas of origin to protect the reputation of their wines. Champagne must come from the area of Champagne. A drink produced elsewhere is called Champagne method. What starts as a dispute between two people two shops, two restaurants, or two large companies, or two countries, moves to a registered trade mark and a court case over infringement. We are increasingly finding places of origin being registered, sometimes after after a dispute and judgement, so that you cannot call something a Cornish (pasty or otherwise) if it doesn't come from Cornwall, or Scotch (such as whisky) if it doesn't come from Scotland.

The origins of Pizza are claimed to be from both Italy and the USA. Chop Suey, a Chinese dish, from the USA. What often happens is that a dish or product is taken by traders or immigrants from one country to another. Ingredients change. Cooking methods change. The original name may stay or be changed. The person whose name is attached to the product may not be the first inventor or creator, but the person with the most marketing push or the alliterative name. For example, Singer Sewing machines. (From a Mr Singer of the Singer family in the USA, on Singer Island in Florida, but Singer also had a home in England. Singer and sewing machine are neatly alliterative. His big push was to mass produce industrial sewing machines small enough to be convenient and cheap enough for every home to have one, bought not outright but on credit with a small weekly payment known as hire purchase.)

I have wandered away from names of popular foods to the names of popular sewing machines. I shall now return to the subject of food and the origins of quotations. First Pavlova, then quotations.

Pavlova
Both Australia and New Zealand claim Pavlova as a national dish. In Perth, Australia, a hotel has a plaque claiming that Pavlova was invented in their hotel. The story goes something like this. The ballet dancer Pavlova did a very successful tour of Australia. The owner of a hotel asked the chef to increase tea time business by making a special centrepiece cake or dessert to go with the tea or coffee.

He made a large meringue and (in my version of the story it sank in the middle so he disguised it) enhanced it with strawberries in the middle. The fruit makes it less cloying, so you can eat more of the meringue, which is basically sugar and egg white. The colour contrast is also appealing.

I could not find any place in New Zealand where they claim to have invented the dish. Meringue can be made soft and mixed up with fruit as in Eton Mess, or solid enough not to sink under the fruit. A New Zealand recipe book or a magazine with a reader's letter giving the recipe pre-dated the visit of Pavlova to Australia.

It seems to me that like Tarte Tatin, Pavlova was the name which caught on. One person makes a dish. Another makes a second equally popular or more popular variation. The dish is named after the cook or chef who makes the dish popular, or a popular personality or the person or patron for whom the dish is made.

A name of a double saucepan, with the item being cooked kept cooler above a basin of boiling water is a Bain Marie in French, Mary's basin or bath of water.

Why would you care?
1 You just wonder.
2 You are fussy about accuracy.
3 To write a researched recipe book.
4 Or to set a quiz.
5 Or to make a bet as to who is right in a pub or cafe. The loser has to buy a round of Bakewell tarts!

This is the story, if I remember rightly. but I rarely remember rightly. Hardly anybody does. A story does not stay the same five minutes later, never mind after a century. You can prove this with a game of Chinese whispers.

If you have any business or social reasons for wanting to establish the origins of Bakewell tart or pudding, you had better check the current situation. If you want to try Bakewell tart, or Bakewell pudding, you can go to Bakewell to compare. But if you just want an almond slice, or almond cake, you can find them all over England, and in recipes books and the internet all around the world.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several posts on Bakewell tart and other foods and restaurants in England and around the world. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Angela Lansbury, the writer not the actress

A fellow writer has written to me a cordial letter from which I extract:

• "I have watched with interest several of your YouTube videos ...  .  I find confusing the many manifestations of your name, and wonder why you chose to adopt that of a nationally-known actress.  I can imagine what a lot of explaining I would have to do whenever you came up in conversation!"

I am not the only person in the world to have the same name as somebody else. In many offices employing over 100 people there are two or more with the same first name, and every so often you find an office where two people have the same first name and family name.

Nor am I the only person in the world to have the same name as somebody (older) whose world wide and internet success and fame has overtaken mine.

I did not choose to have the same name as a nationally known actress. 

The Family Name Change
I admit that my father changed the family surname after World War II before I started school to something which was not European but English. Unfortunately I did not record that I ever asked my father why he chose Lansbury. 

If I did, he probably answered, non committally  as he would have done, that it was just an English name. He was a practical person, ran a small optician's shop, later a second shop, and had no interest in fame. 

My father was a quiet man. He went deaf in one ear, which limited conversation. I realise, whilst typing this for you, that being deaf also accounts for liking for reading books, but also his lack of interest in anything requiring listening: radio and TV, films and theatre, concerts, nor opera. After WWII both of my parents preferred to live a quiet life. 

George Lansbury
Let's go back to the name Lansbury. My father grew up in the East end of London. George Lansbury was known for defending the seamstresses and my father's mother had been a seamstress. The name Lansbury would have been known to both my parents. However, I doubt whether they ever checked on how widespread the name was, whether it was common or distinctive. 

Many people changed their name. Something English sounding and easy to pronounce. Easier to make friends. More memorable for a business. Moss Brothers was originally Moses Brothers. Marks and Spencer.

However, my mother was the one who pushed for a change of name. Her family had been in England, for four generations, more than my father's three. My mother's family had been born in England, speaking English, for four generations.

My maternal grandmother (mother's mother) chose my first name. My mother chose the middle name Angela.

I preferred Angela. It sounded more feminine. I was a girly girl. I liked pink and pretty dresses. I liked frills. I liked to sit and sew.

When I went to primary school (known as elementary in the USA) the teacher called me Angela by mistake because another girl with the same length hair had sat in the same seat the previous year. The teacher appoogised. I obligingly told her it was OK because it was my middle name and I preferred it.

My grandmother died whilst I was still at primary school, so my mother was happy to call me Angela, matching the name I was called at school.

Unfortunately, when I went to grammar school, the teachers reverted to my, now unfamiliar, first name. I endured four years of this, until, worst of all, at O level year we read Hazlitt. Another pupil decided to nickname me Hazlit. Then somebody else decided that was too complicated and called me Hazel Nut. Finally worst of all, I was nicknamed Nut.

When I got to university I took the opportunity to r e v e r t to Angela. (Spaces inserted because predictive text inserts recent.)

As a schoolchild I spent evenings doing homework. TV showed one programme, BBC, Dixon of Dock Green. I did not go to films with my parents. 

When I went to university, I took a trip to the USA. I was delighted that reception in a grand hotel remembered my name Angela Lansbury. 

Imagine my surprise when I went out into the street and saw my name in lights. There was another Angela Lansbury.

For a brief period I added an H before my name. It didn't make any difference. I was still known as Angela and had the same conversations about my name. It just made my signature pretentious and caused confusion about my having two names.

I wrote features and travel articles and several books under my maiden name. When I married my husband insisted that I took his name.

When I started to look for email addresses and websites, my name had already been taken by other people called Angela Lansbury (I know of four of us, the actress, two authors, and one other person).

The names Angela and Lansbury are both legitimate names used by me on documents, not just nicknames, not just pen names. However, I also have other names from other periods of my life, which causes some confusion.

In many other cultures women have two names, their maiden name and their married name. Most people stick to their first married name, even if they divorce and re-marry, in order to have the same name as their children.

Liz Taylor, the actress, is a case of a person who because well-known under a name, and kept using the same name even when she married somebody of a different surname.

I once phoned Alton Towers to speak to the PR/marketing. I left a message, "Please tell Liz Taylor that Angela Lansbury would like to speak to her."

Liz Taylor, the marketing lady, spoke to me on the phone and never mentioned the fact that either of us had the same name as an actress. No doubt she had wasted enough company time doing that to other people and knew that I would understand.

When I go onto Facebook and search for a friend or acquaintance, I usually find at least three people with the same name. Businesses have problems when somebody of the same name opens a business on the other side of the world. You also have problems if anybody of the same name is associated with any kind of criminal activity. 

Worse still, newspapers merge your details with somebody else's. Easily done as people's lives overlap. Angela Lansbury the actress and I both have sons called Anthony. (She has three more children of different names.) 

In some cultures and countries a name is given to everybody in a group. Huge numbers of people are given the names Mohammed or Mary. John Smith is very common. 

I went to teach English to a girl living in Wembley whose family name was Patel. I thought it would be easy to ask where the Patels lived. After finding I was at the wrong house, I asked again. Another family called Patel lived across the road. Then I discovered that several, almost all the people in that small cut de sac were called Patel. 

In Singapore you find many people called Lim, or Wong. To claim a lottery ticket, or many other items, you have to show your national identity number. 

My family think it's pretentious of me to put letters after my name. But in Asia it is a requirement. It helps identify which department you are visiting and which level of employee you are due to meet. This spares the receptionist the embarrassment of introducing the head of the company to the office junior. It saves wasting time. It starts conversation. it helps socially. Introduce two scientists to each other. Two writers. Two students. Two heads of department. Two engineers. Two accountants. Two members of Toastmasters International.

Angela Lansbury, BA Hons, CL, ACG.
English teacher and tutor.
Travel writer and photographer, researcher, author and speaker.
Author of twenty books including:
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.
Quick Quotations.
Who Said What When.

Learning Spanish - beginning

How do you learn Spanish? Start with a plan, encouragement, confidence, success, progress. When I started learning French at school I created an alphabetical notebook of words I already knew or wanted to learn. When we went to Spain on holiday I bought a pocket size A6 notebook and started writing down Spanish words. I thought I might know 5-10 already. I reckoned if I learned one a day, that would be 365. If I learned 10 a day, that would be 3,650 - a pretty good working vocabulary. If that was too challenging, maybe 5 related words each day - the easiest to remember from a group, or just five every day on holiday, written down from signs passed in the street, or multi-language leaflets.

My first day, first half hour, actually five minutes looked like this:

1 adios - goodbye
2 Amigo - friend
3 si - yes
4 senor - mr
5 Sombrero - hat

Five already!

Keep going

6 señora - mrs
7 senorita - miss
8 gracias - thank you
9 uno - one
10 dos - two

I've reached ten - but am confused as to Italian and Spanish. However, thinking of what I saw or heard in a Spanish restaurant helps keep me on track.

Where were we a moment ago? Numbers one, two, three.

11 tres - three

If you are reading this you have reached today's target. I shall find ten words every day and put them on this blog. Just pop back and read it to effortlessly learn.

If you are in Spain or a Spanish speaking country in South America, Mexico, or even in Washington DC and Los Angeles - hey - even place names help.

12 Los Angeles - the angels. Now we know our first step in creating a phrase. Los is the plural. Actually we have two words. 12 is Los.

13 Angeles - angels

How about learning one grammar rule and one sentence every day? You could do this with any language. Just for fun. This is something you can do waiting for a train or at a bus stop just to start or supplement your other studies.

But how about learning whole sentences by listening, or the basic grammar by reading?

I've also bought the Berlitz system Earworms. Under £20 in the UK if you buy the two discs together. Look for offers on ebay. You could play every day when alone. Or put them in a car with a player. If you are buying a laptop computer and learning languages, it is handy to have one which plays CDs, discs.

If you are into Apple, A MacBook Air is light to carry around but does not play discs so you need a supplementary device, or you can download your disc onto iTunes. `the same presumably applies to separate or linked devices such as an iPhone of iPad.

If you normally listen to a lot of music, you could add your Spanish language disc and a couple of songs. (I recall Fernando's hideaway Ole!) I want to find a Spanish nursery rhyme or basic song which teaches Spanish children simple words or numbers or weekdays.

I'll try to do that tomorrow for my next post. That reminds me.

14 mañana! - tomorrow!
***
About Angela Lansbury the author
Angela Lansbury BA Hons is a teacher of English, French and languages. Also author of ten books by regular publishers, such as Wedding Speeches and Toasts, originally published by Ward Lock, then Cassell, reprinted many times.

Latterly self-publisher of other self-help books such as: Quick Quotations; Who said what when.
(See Lulu and Amazon.) To see Angela reading her work and performing, go to YouTube or Toastmasters International  HOD Speakers Club and Harrovians Club sites and other blogs on blogger.com.

Angela speaks to various groups, speaking on radio and TV and giving workshops to schools, clubs, and universities worldwide, from the USA to China.

PS - If you are already a member of an English speaking Toastmasters Club, look for a Spanish speaking club. I think there is one in the UK, one in Europe and at least one in the USA. Toastmasters International has manuals in other languages.

More Information /links

For numbers - I just googled Spanish one two three and found this handy site
http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/cardnum1.htm

www.earwormslearning.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Spanish_origin

The Castle pub lunch at Harrow-on-the-hill

The sign outside shows you that the castle is a chess piece, that sort of castle, not the crenellated castle I had imagined from the name. Inside you won't find any sign of chess.

However, one room has clocks. As far as I could tell the clocks were purely decorative, all telling different times - and stopped.

The pub is on a corner of the slope near the summit of Harrow on the hill, just a few beet below the landmark triangle by the former King's head pub. At the other end of the street above is the famous Harrow School which Churchill attended. The pub has a famous quotation from Churchill on the wall of the back room.

The quotation is correctly attributed.
Lady Astor: "Winston, if I were you're wife I'd put poison in your coffee."
Winston Churchill: "Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it."

Interesting menu features unusual items such as two dishes with Halloumi, Greek cheese, as well as more familiar food such as fish and chips. We waited an hour for our hot food.  I think the staff should have sent olives or nuts or suggested we order a cold starter to share whilst waiting. Despite all those clocks, or perhaps because the clocks were stopped, the place did not have a strong sense of time.

I did not like the black on my bap. I think food cooked until it turns black causes cancer (which is what the cancer websites say). But another diner thought the bap was fine. He happily finished off what I left.

After our complaints about the wait, they did offer money back on the food (not the drinks we'd had whilst waiting). This mollified our large group, from three local clubs, for writers and readers, who are happy to go back and try the food and service again.

As the author of two books of quotations, I think fondly of any pub which has quotations on the walls.

My two books of quotations are:
Quick Quotations For Successful Speeches.
Who Said What When?

Singapore's Sporting And Intellectual Attractions - jogging and strolling, or speeches? Your choice!

If you are sporty you can enjoy running through the jungle on a paper chase with the Hash house harriers, if you are intellectual you can sit and listen to speeches at the dozens of branches of Toastmasters International, and if, like my friend Andrew, you are a good all-rounder, you can do both. The Hashers (a worldwide organisation) meet in Singapore every night of the week, different groups, men only, women only, families, people running with their dogs!
    Most of them make a very reasonable charge for the buffet meal which ends the evening. they were started by the army so expect the evening to end with beer drinking, rowdy songs and insulting nicknames - like 'Dirty D.... or Dim D.... . If you prefer polite and censored speeches with formal address, 'Mr President and honoured guests', go to Toastmasters.
    (Or you can hire a cycle and ride along the beachside on the East Coast. If you can't arrive on time and miss a meeting, your alternative is to go solo along the beachside jogging trails.)
    The current drought (March 2014) is good for some clubs and tourists. It's good weather for the runners or joggers on the hash because rain does not ruin their outing.
   But when you feel it's too hot to go out, it's good to sit indoors listening to speeches in an air conditioned building. Those Toastmasters groups which meet in the public Community Centres in every government -run housing complex will have either water fountains or crates of bottled iced water, or both.
   Some clubs offer local food made by members' families or brought in from a nearby take away. Sometimes food is free, sometimes there is a small charge (ask if price is important to you). The big meetings in hotels may make a charge for a buffet dinner which is before the meeting plus more snacks in the interval. Arrive early to get your share of food you've paid for and have time to network and make friends with the committee.
    Many of the meetings of the Toastmasters International (as the name suggests, most countries of the world) are free for at least one meeting to guests (VIP speakers, tourists and visitors from overseas), and supporters (family, friends and work colleagues of speakers and members).
 For more information on toastmasters groups worldwide google toastmasters international find a club.
    If you are going to a Toastmasters meeting, or if you are not but just want to sit at home and armchair enjoy, look at my blogs on speeches, my videos on YouTube, or the Facebook pages of my London clubs Harrovians and HOD, or the Facebook and LinkedIn pages of clubs showing speeches which have won competitions. If you are competing in the twice yearly autumn and spring competitions held worldwide, you will find workshops and competitions in larger venues, usually with a price for the audience which covers entry to the venue and any food included in the morning, afternoon, evening or whole day or weekend event.
    If you are looking for a quotation for a speech, get QUICK QUOTATIONS For Authors and Speakers by Angela Lansbury, which I published on lulu.com Or ask me to bring it to a Toastmasters Meeting. I have two editions, the latest at £10 (o.n.o. if you are out of work, have done me lots of favours, or I am carrying an older edition or a dog-eared edition). If you are going to a meeting and went to see or buy a copy, remind me to take one or two or three or more -  I went to a Toastmasters meeting yesterday and the demand for copies outstripped my supply.

Quick Quotations For Successful Speeches    Angela Lansbury (first edition 80 pages)
QUICK QUOTATIONS for authors and speakers Angela Lansbury (second edition 105 pages).

Which Wines Should I Serve At My Home Dinner Party?

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Champagne Quotations -
'In victory you deserve it, in defeat you need it.' Napoleon. (I used to worry about quoting quotations accurately. Then I found that famous people who found a witty line went down well would repeat it many times, differently each time. Misquotations are usually more succinct and sound better than the original.
Many famous quotations are translated from the original French in different English words.
I am a happy drinker and a happy wine writer.
Best quotations on drinks and Champagne? I dream of champagne. And making witty remarks about champagne. After a glass of champagne I have sweet dreams and think I have made witty remarks. I have to write down witty remarks, otherwise next day I just have a forgotten dream and big smile. See my book at the end. Now onto a beginner's guide to which wine to serve at your dinner party.

Wine Expert's Advice On Which Wine To Serve
Travelling Trevor is fast becoming a wine expert as a result of the wine tasting lunches, dinners, and evenings, at Berry Brothers near Piccadilly, where he is often sat (I mean that correctly in the passive sense - seated by others) beside the vineyard owner. The vineyard owner often challenges you to guess the grape ('hm - not too sweet, a little dry, only been in the vat xx years, slightly acidic' - so the year? ('wine going brown - may be older').  Trevor often identifies the grape and country and gets the year right or almost right within a year.

Trevor also visits to the Wine Society tastings, consults the wine guidebooks, reads the history of the vineyards, google maps show which bank of the river has the slope getting sun or rain. After years of tours around wine areas of Champagne, Germany, USA, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, now this year he visited Burgundy vineyards and stayed overnight taking photos for them and was rewarded by tastings of unusual wines. (He's an award-winning photographer - in the shortlist for a National Geographic stills competition and and outright winner for a video Boris in London competitions). We have also bought the 'bargain' (reduced price but still a luxury - but including wines you could never normally afford) at Petrus restaurant in London - Petrus being the name of a wine.

When we manage to gather friends from all corners of the globe in Singapore, or the family all meet up in London, we try to have two wines of the same type, but usually a cheap wine and an expensive wine, to compare. We all do a blind tasting and make notes on which wine we prefer, and guess which is the expensive one and which is the cheap one. Then Trevor reveals the labels and prices.

Alas, I'm only just learning to like the tanniny reds and acidic whites. I'm still willing to drink Portuguese Mateus Rose, though German Liebraumilch and Italian Asti Spumante (town of Asti, spumante meaning sparkling) are starting to taste like lemonade and make me wonder whether I am heading for diabetes with too much wine and sugar. So I try to limit myself to one glass with a meal, maximum two.

However, on special occasions I still look for a glass of French Champagne or Italian Prosecco or Californian sparkling rose, a zinfandel, plus a teeny tumbler of an after dinner Muscat. My eyes light up at really sweet wines, German Auslese, Spatlese (spat - late, like me, late but sweet) or a New World Icewine from the USA or even New Zealand.

But when Trevor is emailed by another younger member of the family for advice on which wine to serve at home-cooked dinner party, Trevor says with more authority:

Dinner Party Pairings

Re your dinner, any red wine goes fine with any red meat.  The matches we’ve been trying (mustard with Burgundy, pepper steak with Syrah etc) seem to me no more than interesting experiments.  My preference would be to match lighter meat (lamb) with lighter, fruitier wine (Beaujolais, Burgundy, Rioja or Chateau Musar).  Hold the Bordeaux, Syrah and Italian for steak.

No need for wine with desert (it would have to be a sweet wine though – sweet white if fruit-based, sweet red with chocolate).

Cheese is fussier.  Soft white cheeses, including goat, go very well with well-chilled Sauvignon Blanc.  For waxy yellow cheese like Dutch or Emmental I have yet to find a wine that works.  Hard, crumbly, yellow cheeses like cheddar, manchego and pecorino need a red wine and mature examples can soften any amount of tannin.  Blue cheese like Stilton is famously paired with port (salt vs sweet) but I think it’s too much richness altogether, would just enjoy the cheese.

Love These Links:

Berry Brothers and Rudd Shop, 3 St James's Street, London

Berrys Bros & Rudd
3 St James's Street
London SW1A 1EG
Tel:+44 (0)800 280 2440

Email: bbr@bbr.com

Frequent seated lunches and dinners can be very pricey but you still need to book early because they sell out fast.

Bin end shop Basingstoke (frequent tasting mornings with tutoring sessions for a small price about £5-10)

Berry Bros. & Rudd Hamilton Close Houndmills Basingstoke Hampshire RG21 6YB

www.bbr.com

thewinesociety.com (Wine tastings for members - you can join - it's a public co-op, and they sell wines, bargain bin ends, and glasses, books on wine and wine theme tea towels.) 

Angela's Wine Glass Etiquette and After Dinner Quotations:
Watch Angela Lansbury on restaurant etiquette on you tube

Buy books by Angela Lansbury on speeches and Quick Quotations For Successful Speeches, for after dinner speeches on lulu.com

'When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.' (Henry Youngman, 1906-1998.)
'If this is tea, bring me coffee, if this is coffee, bring me tea.' Abraham Lincoln.

Send offers of free dinners and news of wine tastings (press, public or personal).

Invitations to free dinners and wine tastings are accepted with blushes or gratifying (to you) and embarrassing (to me) eagerness! 
My email is annalondon8@gmail.com (I am not Anna but Angela. tried to get 'Angela London and a number but several others already had the same idea. However, I managed to snap up the Chinese 'lucky number' 8.)